Voting in ASPA's 2017 election is open and you have less than two weeks to cast your ballot. Now through midnight on Dec. 1, you have the opportunity to vote for the individuals you believe should serve in ASPA's leadership.

ASPA's 2018 Annual Conference, March 9-13 in Denver, is less than four months away and plans are taking shape! Focusing on our theme, "Mission Focused and Service First: Creating Innovative Solutions," this conference will look deeply at the hands-on innovation happening throughout the discipline, through both the practitioner and scholar lens.

Keep your eyes on your inbox in the coming weeks as we prepare to announce plenary speakers you'll hear while in Denver! In the meantime, we are pleased to announce Presidential Panels are being finalized as we plan for a variety of panels looking at topics critical to the discipline. Just a few include:

Military Through the Public Administration Lens

Paul Posner: He Gave Us So Much

Smart Cities: A Comparative Perspective

Inclusion in Public Spaces

Ally Training

We are also pleased to announce our proposal notifications continue to be sent out, inviting more than 900 individuals to serve as presenters, moderators, speakers and co-authors throughout this five-day event. (If you haven't gotten a letter yet, please be patient; it takes quite a while to send out 900 notifications!)

We will be sending out more updates next week, so keep watch on your inbox and make plans now to join us in Denver!

ASPA's professional development webinars are ongoing throughout the year. Averaging 75 attendees per webinar and free to ASPA members, these e-learning opportunities provide you with valuable insights and information at your fingertips. Visit our website to stay in the loop about all upcoming webinars, BookTalks and Student Series.

Social marketing is a discipline unfamiliar to many policymakers, often confused with the more frequently applied and studied fields of social media, behavioral economics or social change. It is a growing field and methodology, however, that has been successfully applied to improve public health, prevent injuries, protect the environment, engage communities and improve financial well-being. Policymaking for Citizen Behavior Change is designed to demonstrate the ways in which social marketing can be an effective and efficient tool to change citizens' behavior and how to advocate for and support its appropriate application.

This webinar will provide an overview of why enterprise risk management is important for today's leaders and even more so for future leaders. Led by one of today's leading experts, this event will focus on the contents of Karen Hardy's book and why it is imperative for MPA students as future leaders to absorb this knowledge to help prepare them for success.

The True Size of Government
Dec. 7 | 1 p.m. ET
Presenter:
Paul Light, New York University—Wagner School

Is today's government workforce too big? Too small? Are there enough people for the mission? How can we tell when we don't have a good look at the make-up of the federal workforce? This webinar will explore this topic in depth with one of today's leading experts!

Communications skills are in long demand and short supply—and are essential for your future career, whether you choose an academic or practitioner path. Join us for this discussion about effective communications and learn more about how invaluable these skills can be.

Do you love ASPA and the benefits that come with membership? We hope so. That's why this holiday season, we want ASPA to be the gift that keeps on giving!

From now through the end of December, members who recruit new members will receive a $10 credit on their membership, good toward your next year's dues—and your recruit will receive a $10 credit toward their renewal next year.

There's plenty of fine print associated with this offer, so if you're interested in taking advantage of it, please contact us for more information. Note that this offer only applies to members joining ASPA between today and December 31, 2017, so you should act now! (If you work for a government organization that needs more time to process paperwork, we can work with you! Let us know about your constraints and we'll see how we can help you use this offer.)

Let your friends, family, colleagues or students get their new year started on the right foot with a year of ASPA membership. Click here to join now!

If you receive the Bridge and are not currently an ASPA member, let us know if you're interested in becoming one!

ASPA has released its most recent installment of its Memos to State and Local Leaders series! November's release was written by the Suncoast Chapter and looked at edge county syndrome. If you haven't accessed this resource yet, make sure you take a look!

The Memos to State and Local Leaders Series was initiated in 2016 when ASPA Chapters across the United States were invited to develop topical papers on critical policy and management issues that our states and localities face, along with recommendations to address—and even overcome—them. More than a dozen Chapters answered the call.

At this time, ASPA has released three memos (produced by ASPA's Central Pennsylvania Chapter and the Suncoast Chapter), with more anticipated in the coming weeks. Take time to read through those already published and make the most of this valuable information.

We look forward to using this series to engage in an ongoing dialogue, building on the memos and applying locally based challenges and promising practices to a broader scale.

ASPA is seeking fresh voices for PA TIMES in 2018. Authors for both the magazine and the online version are under consideration at this time. Consider now whether you would be interested in contributing original content to either of these publications.

We are looking for columnists who can speak to a range of subjects throughout the year including:

Public administration education

Gender studies

Health care

Social equity

Budgets

Performance management

Evidence-based policymaking

The government workforce

Demographic shifts

Comparative public administration

International issues

Authors can sign up for a variety of rotations, focusing columns on our themes throughout the year or topics of your choice. The 2018 editorial calendar is now available on our website. Take a look and let us know if you are interested in having a voice within these discussions. Simply submit a columnist application and we will review your information and respond as soon as possible. First-time authors and students are welcome!

The Center for State and Local Finance (CSLF) at Georgia State University has lowered its fees for its remaining 2017-18 public finance courses:

2-day classes are now $350—previously $665

3-day classes are now $500—previously $985

4-day classes are now $700—previously $1,315

CSLF took this action to ensure more government leaders—and aspiring leaders—have access to in-depth instruction and vital networking opportunities, as part of its executive education program. Upcoming winter courses include Debt Management (deadline Jan. 9) and Treasury and Investment Management (deadline Feb. 21). For details and registration information, visit cslf.gsu.edu/training.

The Center for Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Central Florida's (UCF) School of Public Administration will host its 12th annual Public Administration Research Conference (PARC), April 12-14, 2018 on the UCF campus in Orlando. Continuing to focus on important public administration issues, the 12th PARC will organize around the theme, "A Return to 'Governance in Dark Times'? Creating Spaces for Citizen Dialogue, Encouraging Engagement in Public Life, and Ensuring Government Transparency and Accountability." The deadline for submissions is Dec. 15, 2017. Click here for more information.

ASPA's Section on Environment and Natural Resource Administration (SENRA) invites students in graduate programs to submit their papers on any environmental topic for consideration in the Section's 2017 student paper competition. Faculty members can also nominate student paper(s) for submission. The best written paper will be awarded a prize of $200 and the author will receive a certificate of recognition from SENRA at ASPA's 2018 Annual Conference. The deadline for receiving papers is Dec. 31, 2017. Click here for more information.

Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University is seeking paper proposals for a conference, "Public Finance and the New Economy." The field of public finance is faced with challenges and opportunities arising from the new economy, sharing economy, data analytics and artificial intelligence. The Andrew Young School invites papers that examine how these changes affect the public sector, as well as how the public sector is adapting. All proposals are due Feb. 1, 2018. Click here for more information.

Suffolk University in Boston has issued the following call for papers for a symposium sponsored with ASPA, "The Future of Public Service: Advancing the Civil Society through Partnership Government," to take place May 31, 2018. This dialogue will explore the next frontier of public service: partnership government. It will focus on a broad vision of public service grounded in the principles of the civil society, the common good, service to others and social equity, exploring the need for public service organizations and other actors to recognize and embrace the interdependence that is necessary to succeed as partners in an era of fundamental challenges to the role of government itself. Decisions will be made beginning Feb. 1, 2018 and proposals may be submitted and considered on a rolling basis thereafter. Click here for more information.

The Conference of Minority Public Administrators (COMPA) invites you to join them for their annual conference, Feb. 12-14, 2018 in Los Angeles. This year's theme is: "Inspiring Leadership During Challenging Times." The Call for Papers is out, including information about best paper awards, which will be given in the amounts of $1,500, $1,000 and $500. All conference papers submitted will be reviewed for publication in a special symposium edition of either the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy or the Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior. Click here for more information.

E-PARCC is a project of the "Collaborative Governance Initiative" launched in 2007 by the Syracuse University Maxwell School's Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC). E-PARCC provides free online resources for those who teach collaborative public management, networks and public management, collaborative governance, international development and collaborative problem solving around the world. This year, Syracuse is happy to announce the Glendal E. and Alice D. Wright Prize Fund for Conflict and Collaboration Case Studies in International Development, a new competition for cases in Development in Transition and Conflict Societies: Effective Use of Collaborative Methods in International Development. All case studies and teaching simulations are due by March 1, 2018. Click here for more information.

IIAS has announced its 2018 Congress will be in Tunis, Tunisia, June 25-29, 2018. Focusing on a theme of administrative resilience, IIAS has released its Call for Papers and has launched its conference website at iias-congress2018.org. Click here for more information.

The latest articles from Public Administration Review are available in the Wiley Online Library.Unlinked articles are not posted online yet. Check with PAR's Early View to see what's available in the days ahead.

Abraham Unger, Business Improvement Districts in the United States: Private Government and Public Consequences. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). 206 pp. $129 (Hardcover) ISBN:9783319322933
Haris Alibasic, University of West Florida

Andrew Podger and John Wanna (Eds.). Sharpening The Sword Of State: Building Executive Capacities In The Public Services Of The Asia-Pacific (Acton, Australia: Australia National University Press, 2016). 529 pp. $45 (paper) ISBN: 978-1760460723
Evan Berman, Victoria University of Wellington

Public Integrity has established a YouTube channel with 24 original videos for use in the classroom, workshops and professional viewing.

Playlists include integrity, ethical decisionmaking, organizational ethics, ethics and integrity research and corruption. If you have published an article and would like to contribute a video that is in line with the journal's mission, please submit your idea for consideration to donmenzel@verizon.net. You can find journal information at: http://www.tandfonline.com/MPIN

Find your next career opportunity at publicservicecareers.org. This online job board is the perfect resource for making a career change or landing your first job in the public service. It lists dozens of positions in academia, government and the nonprofit sector. Below are just a few current listings.